4 Protestors Killed, 40 Injured – WKDA Calls for Appeals

Indian paramilitary forces fired at protestors resulting in four people killed and around forty members of the protestors wounded. The protest took place in the district Ramban.

It is believed that the Indian Border Security Forces (IBSF) forcibly entered into a local mosque at Gool Gulab Garh, Ramban, Jammu, interupting the prayers. Following this disrespectful act towards the Quran, the people of Gool Gulab Garh, Ramban took to the streets and began protesting for what IBSF did. It is believed the protestors went to the IBSF camp and started pelting stones as a matter of protest.

The IBSF responded by firing back at the protestors, clearly the lethal force used was disproportionate towards the demonstrating public.

IBSF’s Inspector General stated that the use of force was as self-defence to stop the protesters from causing harm. It is the routine rhetoric statement issued by the Indian armed forces following such tragic incidents.

After the brutal incident and the protest, mobile and internet access has been shut down and a curfew imposed almost in the entire Jammu & Kashmir. The Kashmiri pro freedom leadership has either been detained in their homes or arrested.

Kashmir has suffered constant conflicts with the Indian forces and repeated curfews which continue to rob the people of Kashmir their right to freedom and self-determination.

World Kashmir Diaspora Alliance, continues to raise concerns as to what happens to the people of Kashmir and how they suffer with repeated and unacceptable violence, torture and deaths at the hands of Indian Armed Forces deployed in the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

BACKGROUND

Since January 1990 there has been a genuine and popular uprising in Jammu & Kashmir for the fulfillment of the promise about the rights of self-determination made by the government of India not only at international level through the United Nations but also through it’s own constitution (under article 253). The Indian government has responded to the demand for the right to self-determination by the Kashmiri people with an iron fist. Enforced Disappearances, Torture, Extra-Judicial Execution, Arbitrary Arrest and Rape are common place. The PSA is one of many laws that have been put in place by the Indian government in Kashmir. Under this law anybody can be arrested and held for up to two years without trial often moved a considerable distance from their families. Frequently people are re-arrested as soon as they are released after the maximum two year term; often at the prison gates.
Thousands of cases of human rights abuses have been lodged at the UN and well over 90,000 deaths have been recorded by credible NGOs since the beginning of the 1990’s. There are 8000 missing person and the European Parliament passed an emergency resolution in July 2008 on nameless and mass graves of Kashmir.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. LETTERS WRITTEN IN A PRIVATE AND PERSONAL CAPACITY MAY BE MORE EFFECTIVE. PLEASE STRESS THAT YOUR CONCERN FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IS NOT POLITICALLY MOTIVATED BUT THAT IT IS BASED THE RIGHTS ENSHRINED IN THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS WHICH GRANTS THE RIGHTS TO LIFE, LIBERTY AND SECURITY, DISALLOWING TORTURE AND ARBITRARY DETENTION AND THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND PEACEFUL ASSOCIATION.